My Brunch with Ray Sachs

entropic remnants

Hall of Famer
Name
John Griggs
I met Ray here on this forum and over at Mu-43. I was immediately impressed with his to-the-point user reviews of cameras that zeroed in on the most important things to a SHOOTER and not those of us who are tech-obsessed, lol -- which of course we all are sometimes.

In fact, Ray's comparative review of the LX7 (along with other cameras) convinced me it would work for what I needed it for and I got it -- and am glad I did.

Well, it turns out that Ray just lives a handful of miles from me so we got together for a brunch at a local cafe that has hosted some of my shows and has nice food.

The Unofficial Ray Sachs Review

I am happy to report that in person, Ray's persona matches his online one. He is engaging and knowledgeable yet conveys a certain humility that experts sometimes lack.

He was kind enough to bring some of his personal and review cameras so I could check them out so I got to see an X-Pro 1, Sony RX-1 and Nikon Coolpix A in person. I was surprised at how much I liked the general feel and ergonomics of the Coolpix A which is a camera I showed immediate disrespect for when it was announced, lol. Ray has already gotten some good mileage out of it and I have to say it seems to be a very nice piece with great ergonomics overall. I like holding it better than the RX-1 actually.

We talked quite a long time after we ate and it's good I know the owner of the place so we didn't get given the heave-ho, lol. In fact, we had no time to go out shooting but that will hopefully happen at a later date. I cleverly picked up the bill so Ray will have to have lunch together again so he can be even...

Not a great place for photography and Ray was backlit to some extent, but here's a shot from the brunch of Ray with some of his "children". Taken with the E-M5 and the 17mm f/1.8 wide open.

So to conclude this review, I can heartily endorse meeting Ray Sachs!

ray.jpg
 
And also on mu-43.com, here's one of John, not backlit, with just one of his darling children!

View attachment 67131
Coolpix A shots-65 by ramboorider1, on Flickr

A small testament to the Nikon Coolpix A. I grabbed this to take a quick shot of John shortly before we were about to leave. I still had the camera set to auto-ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 and had it at f4. Well, there wasn't a lot of light in the restaurant and I just pulled the camera up and took the shot without really checking ANY of the settings. And the combination of minimum shutter speed and aperture pushed the camera to shoot this at ISO 6400. Its a jpeg and even at 100%, its not bad at all. Nice little camera.

One other interesting thing that came up at lunch was we were talking, probably in animated fashion, about cameras, when an older gent from a nearby table walked over and indicated he could tell we were talking about photography and cameras. He asked if we knew where he could sell some Nikon gear because he's recently switched systems to micro 4/3 and since he bought his OMD, he hadn't been using his Nikon gear at all. We hadn't been talking about m43 at that point, so he was just asking us generally without realizing that m43 was sort of how we met online. It seemed like a sign of some pretty serious critical mass when three guys who'd never met before today (although John and I had met virtually) all run into each other in a small cafe in a small town in Southeast Pennsylvania and all three of us were m43 shooters, two of whom had recently transitioned from Nikon DLSR gear. A sure sign that mirrorless has basically arrived...

It was a real pleasure to meet and hang out with John, who does some stunningly good work, in addition to being a good guy to hang out with. The next time we're gonna meet in my small town and lunch will be on me....

-Ray
 
You guys look just like your avatars.

I can't seem to smile for a posed shot to save my life. That sort of sickly expression you see in John's pic of me always FEELS like a smile when I'm performing it but always looks more like constipation or shingles or something in the photos that result. I actually do smile a lot and the occasional candid will catch that, but I can't pose a smile even if you promised me a free Leica if I could. My avatar is one of the only natural expressions I've ever seen of myself in a posed photo. Weird, eh?

-Ray
 
I can't seem to smile for a posed shot to save my life. That sort of sickly expression you see in John's pic of me always FEELS like a smile when I'm performing it but always looks more like constipation or shingles or something in the photos that result. I actually do smile a lot and the occasional candid will catch that, but I can't pose a smile even if you promised me a free Leica if I could. My avatar is one of the only natural expressions I've ever seen of myself in a posed photo. Weird, eh?

-Ray

To me that looked like patience with a guy who you didn't feel it was polite to say "No" to when he asked to take your photo, lol. It really doesn't look bad, Ray -- though I got to see your real smile several times and I do admit it's much better than the photo!
 
Such a glowing review of Ray, I guess I have to get one. So Ray, lunch next week ... my place.

Gary

The transportation costs and time are prohibitive, but the next time I'm in LA, Gary, I'm THERE! Of course, in the meantime, I understand there are some other knockoff Ray types around. Some overly enthusiastic reviewers have even started referring to some of them as "the NEW Ray!". I can't vouch for them, but if I met them in a bar with a bunch of clearly inferior models, I'd give 'em a wink and a nod and try to impart just the smallest bit of my coolness. Or maybe that was all in the mind of one of those over-enthusiastic reviewer of Rays. Who's not so damn cool to begin with and he doesn't even come with an OVF...

-Ray (the real one, the original, etc) OTOH, that's Kareem Abdul Jabbar to you!
 
Actually, that is not the question. What did they drink?

Hate to disappoint, but I just had a tuna melt and iced tea - John was in breakfast mode and had an omelette and coffee. Nothing was spiked. We're boring old guys sitting around talking about CAMERAS for god sake!

And Luke, the tuna melt had INSANE ergos, but he iced tea left a bit to be desired...

-Ray
 
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